Microsoft: 360-exclusives are about “quality and impact, not number of releases in a year”

Phil Spencer corporate vice president of Xbox 360, has said despite a small line-up of 360-exclusives in the works for 2012, the “core” gamer is still being considered when creating exclusive IP.

Speaking in the latest issue of GameInformer, Spencer said Microsoft’s focus is on “quality and impact” instead of the “number of releases in a year.”

“Creating core IP, as many first-and third-parties have seen over the years, isn’t an easy thing,” said Spencer. “I went through the process of creating Gears with Epic and I know the sweat, time, and effort that went into it. I also worked on things like Alan Wake, Too Human, Crackdown, and stuff that didn’t hit the same level of success, but had an equal amount of sweat equity and heart go into getting created.”

“So it will continue to be something that we focus on with new partners like Crytek and new people that aren’t announced yet. We do think that it’s fundamental that core gamers look at 360 as the place they want to play games.”

Microsoft’s focus of late has been on Kinect and turning Xbox 360 into an entertainment hub, but users can expect Halo 4, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare for the console, and there’s also Fable: The Journey and Crytek’s Ryse slated for this year – even if both are technically for Kinect.